Most of the windows are in and the shingling is almost done!!!

The roofing crew is hard at it!


















Here you can see the completed front roofing and some of the installed windows. I love these front windows. We have a modified colonial grid in the front--just the top of the double hung windows have colonial grilles. No grills in the windows in the back of the house.


















We are still waiting for the big back windows to come in. I can't wait!

"Camping out" at the house!

We had been wanting to spend the night out at the lot because the weather has been soooo beautiful. A few nights nights ago, a perfect night presented itself (not only temperature-wise, but there was also a full moon!!!) . We set up camp in the great room and fell asleep watching the full moon. It was beautiful! Here are some pictures--they don't do it justice!



















The next morning we woke up around 6:00 a.m. to the most refreshing sky and air, AND a hot air balloon rising over the other side of the lake!!! I couldn't believe my eyes. You can see it in the pictures below.

Some magical views!

Soon the windows will be in so I took pictures of the views while they were still wide open. I'm going to miss this big wide open view! The view below is from our bedroom window. We love the views more every day.





















This view is from the hearth room windows.



















This is the view from our masterbath, right where the tub will be, looking to the west. Some of the sunsets are just amazing.



















Here's a few more pretty views from other parts of the lake. I love it out at the lake so much. I have planted a garden with peas, tomatoes, radishes, melons, squash, and several herbs. I can't believe this is going to be our home! (Oh, the garden is rather lame at this time, I must admit. There's a lot of silt runoff that goes over the garden and I don't think the plants like that!) (Wish I could figure out how to get the underlining of this text turned off!)

The robin's nest and babies

We almost knocked the nest down, but decided to live in harmony with them :-)


















Here's mama robin waiting for us to leave so she can feed the babies.



















Here she is feeding them. They're always hungry (see below)!

The Green Team! (the geothermal guys)

The geothermal green team finished putting in the wells. They installed 6 wells, 150 feet deep each. About 6 feet below the ground, four hoses (tubes?) are attached to each well and run underground and into the basement and attach to the heating and cooling system . Two of the hoses send cooled air from the ground to the house and two return the air from the house to the ground (or something like that!)--kind of like veins and arteries.






This system will be very energy efficient and should save us bunch on our heating and cooling bills!

Framing continues

Things are hopping again at the house site. The cover for the deck is going
up! In the picture above, you can see Mark Aksamit, our UBuildIt consultant, looking over the framing progress. Brian is working on the roof.













Quintessential Randy, our framer. He's a hard worker!

Cool dirt moving--filling in the trench.

Josh, Kaitlyn, Nathaniel & Caleb--check out this cool dirt digger & mover. Our plumber is filling in the big trench he dug on Tuesday. The next time he's moving dirt, I'm going to see if he will let me operate it just once! It looks like a riot!

Barney's brother's idea is a winner!

Barney's brother, Richard, sent us this idea. He said, "Why not turn your back patio into a tequila tasting bar?" We had to laugh.. but why not?

I Live at Lowes

I've been busy shopping for everything from faucets to flooring, hardwoods to hardware, appliances, cabinets--you name it. I'm shopping everywhere. Today I was looking at granite out by the airport! One of my favorite places to shop (because I like their prices and they work with you) is Lowes! Here's a picture of a piece of granite I found (at BGS by the airport). It's kind of brownish/gold. It's kind of wild, but I love it. (Actually, the more I look at it the more I love it.) What do you think?

Here's Rory filling in the trench this morning. Pushing dirt around looks like fun!



















Here's the big trench for the plumbing to the house. They dug this Tuesday (6/23)
























Here's the Geothermal Green Team digging the first well. They only got one done today. Three more to go.

We have water!

Here's Rory Schroeder, our plumber, tapping into the Bennington's city water. You can hear it sprinkling outside.

Today is an exciting day!

No pictures today -- yet, but today's exciting because the plumbers are out there digging a trench to the street so we can hook to Bennington's city water! Yea! This will allow us to soak the ground in so that soon the concrete can be poured for the garage floor, the front stoop, the back patio, etc. The heating and a/c well digger guys are coming out today to dig the wells for the geothermal system. AND the windows (well, the majority of them) have arrived and tomorrow the framer will be back out to continue working. (He was off the project for a couple of weeks while the plumbing and air ducts were installed.) Within the next two weeks (or so), I think there will be more visible progress.

Barney just walked in with samples of roofing and siding that he picked up from our favorite lady, Barbara at UBuildIt! So, it looks like we have more decisions to make!

Here's my laundry room!

















We've been busy! I haven't posted pictures lately because they've just been doing the plumbing and heating and air conditioning work, and pictures aren't all that interesting, but I'll post some anyway. (By the way, I have to fix the date on the photos--it's showing as 3 days in the future!) It's great to have those two jobs partially done. Next week we should have running water. We're putting in a geothermal heating and cooling system which we're very excited about.

























The steps are done!




















There are two landings on the steps so if you fall, you only fall 4 or 6 steps!

More pictures of framing... we're about 80% finished framing now.

More framing

Framing is almost done!

Memorial Day - and we are grateful

The older we get the more meaningful Memorial Day is to us. Today we went to a dedication of a Veteran's Memorial in Treynor, Iowa. Our friend, Jon Beckenhauer (a friend from waaay back when Barney was in the 24th Medical Co.), was the speaker for the dedication. Jon's speech, and the entire program was very moving. It's a well worn phrase, but it was such a tremendous reminder that freedom isn't free.

The living room window wall is now framed. We are still trying to figure out the exact design of the windows on this wall. Barney and I have been designing this house for 25 years so you'd think we'd know exactly how we want these windows, but, we don't--yet. The area on the left is the open stairwell to the walkout basement. I can't wait for them to be able to remove the stabilizing boards. As soon as the roof is on, they'll remove the boards and we will be able to walk through unfettered!


















The informal dining area is on the right hand side of the picture.


















Luke is helping with the framing. You can see him hammering away in the picture below. We are blessed to have his help. We are blessed indeed in so many ways.


















These two pictures were taken Saturday night, May 23rd. We are enjoying watching the geese families at the lake. There are lots of geese--loud honking geese at times, but it's still wonderful. You can see our house in the background in the 2nd picture.